BHP BILLITON YEELIRRIE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PTY LTD Yeelirrie Project Flora and Vegetation Survey Baseline Report February
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BHP BILLITON YEELIRRIE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PTY LTD Yeelirrie Project Flora and Vegetation Survey Baseline Report February 2011 Prepared by: For: Western Botanical URS Australia Pty Ltd PO Box 3393 Level 3, 20 Terrace Rd BASSENDEAN WA East Perth WA 6004 28th February 2011 Report Ref: WB653 Yeelirrie Project Flora and Vegetation Baseline Survey February 2011 Document Status Version Date Distribution 0 28.02.2011 URS Australia, Electronic Project Team Field Survey Rebecca Graham, Cheyne Jowett, Geoff Cockerton, Amy Douglas, Daniel Brassington, Jessie-Leigh Brown, Simon Colwill, Sophie Fox, Renee D’Herville, Lewis Trotter, Bridget Watkins, Dr. Carolyn Ringrose, Elly Beatty, Jeremy Macknay, Cassie Adam, Susan Regan, Sam Atkinson, John Rouw and Philip Trevenen. Report Preparation: Rebecca Graham, Geoff Cockerton, Dr. Carolyn Ringrose, Cheyne Jowett, Amy Douglas, Lewis Trotter, Bridget Watkins, Daniel Brassington, Jessie-Leigh Brown, Simon Colwill and Sophie Fox. Acknowledgements: Doug and Lucy Brownlie (Yakabindie Station), Gil and Dale O’Brien (Yeelirrie Homestead) Doug Blandford (DC Blandford & Associates), BHP Billiton Yeelirrie Development Company Pty Ltd field staff and contractors, HeliWest pilots (Simon, Luke, Mike and Brad). Map Production by CAD Resources Pty Ltd Western Botanical i Yeelirrie Project Flora and Vegetation Baseline Survey February 2011 Executive Summary The Proposed Yeelirrie Development (project) at Yeelirrie Pastoral Station, is some 700 km north-east of Perth and 500 km north of Kalgoorlie (Figure 1). BHP Billiton Yeelirrie Development Company Pty Ltd (BHPB Billiton), through URS Australia Pty Ltd, engaged Western Botanical to undertake an assessment of the flora and vegetation within an area referred to as the total study area. The total study area includes the areas studied both locally and regionally. The Proposed Yeelirrie Development lies within study area 1. The local study area is defined as study areas 1, 2 and 3 (Figure 2), and the regional study area is defined as study areas 4 to 16 (Figure 3). During the assessment of study area 4 the north- western section was redefined as study area 3 (Figure 7). The total study area (study areas 1 to 16), excluding study areas 8 and 9, lies in the Eremaean Botanical Province within the Murchison Biogeographic Region and the East Murchison (MUR1) subregion. Study area 8 lies within the West Murchison (MUR2) subregion, while study area 9 lies predominately within the Carnegie (GAS2) subregion of the Gascoyne Biogeographic Region. The local study area falls between two Department of Agriculture Western Australia (DAWA) rangeland condition survey areas; the ‘Sandstone-Yalgoo-Paynes Find’ area and the ‘North-eastern Goldfields’ area. Prior botanical knowledge of the Murchison Biogeographic Region consisted of broad scale regional flora surveys completed as part of rangeland condition surveys which provide a general account of vegetation and descriptions of land systems. More detailed surveys have been undertaken by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and the Western Australian Museum. Western Mining Corporation Limited (WMC) completed flora and vegetation studies for the project as part of the WMC Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Environmental Review and Management Programme (ERMP) for the project in 1979. None of the flora recorded at that time was considered rare and the majority of identified species were known to occur in similar landforms in the region. A number of the plants collected were at the time undescribed and it was not possible to Western Botanical ii Yeelirrie Project Flora and Vegetation Baseline Survey February 2011 determine whether or not they were of particular botanical significance, as their regional distribution was not understood. In the last 20 years, a number of flora and vegetation surveys including habitat mapping, have been undertaken in association with increased mining activities in the vicinity of the project. Western Botanical has undertaken the majority of these surveys. This report identifies species not identified during the WMC studies. Survey effort For the purposes of this report, Western Botanical completed both ‘local’ and ‘regional’ surveys. The local surveys are defined as study areas 1, 2 and 3. Study area 1 includes the project footprint area and the proposed 45 km access road from the Goldfields Highway. Study area 2 covers the proposed wellfields, quarry and buffers, and consists of five areas extending from borders of the north and south perimeter of study area 1. Study area 3, a satellite tenement, lies 30 km south-east of study area 1, and is a subset of study area 4. A section of the proposed access road, assessed as part of the study area 1, forms part of the northern boundary of study area 3. Flora and vegetation surveys of the total study area were undertaken from December 2008 to December 2010, during which a total of 39 field visits were conducted. The proposed level of disturbance determined the level of survey detail in each study area. Local study area surveys included mapping the vegetation communities and searching for, quantifying and distinguishing the extent of populations of significant species. In study area 1, the area studied in greatest detail, Western Botanical completed a Level 2 assessment of the flora and vegetation in accordance with Guidance Statement 51 issued by the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA, 2004). This included mapping the vegetation communities, mapping the distribution and abundance of significant flora and assessing quadrats and relevés to provide a statistical analysis of the variation in the floristic composition of vegetation communities. The regional surveys, defined as study areas 4 to 16, extended over an area of 185,000 square km and included targeted searches for significant flora and vegetation Western Botanical iii Yeelirrie Project Flora and Vegetation Baseline Survey February 2011 communities of interest that were primarily associated with the Central Calcrete System within study area 1. Land systems & vegetation communities Contrasts in vegetation structure and species composition reflect soil chemical and physical properties, landscape position, hydrology and underlying geology. These vary significantly on a broad scale between land systems as defined by DAWA and also in the local study area in relation to soil landscapes defined by D.C. Blandford in Soils and Soil Landscapes of the Yeelirrie Study Area (Blandford, 2011). Further finer scale differences in vegetation structure and species composition were utilised to define vegetation communities in the local study area. Many of the land systems found within the local study area are well represented in the wider biogeographical region. However, there is a considerable representation of land type 18, described as calcrete drainage plains with mixed halophytic and non- halophytic shrublands and its four component land systems, within the local study area. This is of interest due to the limited and disjunct distribution of this land type throughout the Sandstone-Yalgoo-Paynes Find and the North-eastern Goldfields Survey Areas. Regional representation of land type 18 (calcrete drainage plains), its four component land systems: Cunyu, Cosmo, Mileura and Melaleuca, and the vegetation communities supported within these land systems, are associated with the margins of salt lakes and occluded paleodrainage channels. These are an uncommon and geographically isolated series of land systems and vegetation communities within the broader region. Fifty-two vegetation communities, which included one complex, were mapped within the local study area. Thirty-nine of these communities were represented in study area 1. The vegetation communities were aligned and associated with the four soil landscapes described by D.C. Blandford in Soils and Soil Landscapes of the Yeelirrie Study Area (Blandford, 2011): Granite Breakaway System, Sand Plain System, Playa System and Central Calcrete System (Calcrete System). A fifth system was added, Hardpan and Drainage System, which forms a continuum between the Sand Plain System and Playa System. A sixth system, the Saline Playa System, was also described in study area 3, which was not represented in study area 1 or 2. Western Botanical iv Yeelirrie Project Flora and Vegetation Baseline Survey February 2011 Priority Ecological Communities Western Botanical found no flora related Priority Ecological Communities (PECs) and Threatened Ecological Community (TECs) listed under the EPBC Act 1999 or WC Act 1950 as occurring within the study area 1. Some vegetation communities, particularly those occurring within the Calcrete System of study area 1, are considered of interest as they are based on current information available of limited distribution. Some of these vegetation communities that are mapped in study area 1 fall within the descriptions of ecosystems at risk described by Cowan (2001) within the East Murchison IBRA subregion. These ecosystems are considered as being of limited distribution and at risk, and consequently, they are collectively considered to have conservation significance. The vegetation communities of interest within study area 1 are: (i) Communities recognised by Cowan (2001) as being of limited distribution and at risk: • CEgW Eucalyptus gypsophila Woodland on Calcrete, equivelent to Calcrete platform woodlands/shrublands of the north-east Goldfields (Pringle et al. 1994 - site type 8); • CCpW Casuarina pauper Woodland